Simple Ways to Simplify Grading
by Guy E. White on 28 October, 2014
How do I assess 1500 pages of work each week?
My first year teaching, I found myself buried under a mountain of paper each week. Worst yet, the mountain grew and grew. One week, I spent 20 hours catching up on weeks-old assignments.
Maybe you’ve been here too: sitting at your desk with piles and piles of old assignments. Your students have long forgotten about most of these assignments, except for the ones who keep asking for the corrected versions of their work. It’s a nightmare. Can you escape?
With around 150 students each year, I can easily find myself with 450-1500 pages of work on my desk each week. How do I manage all this? It’s simple. Here’s how I defeated the grading dragon.
1. Grading, Feedback, and Assessment are Three Different Things
Think of a piece of paper needing “grading” on your desk. What’s the purpose of this assignment? There is a huge difference between grading, providing feedback, and assessment.
Grading is providing a score to show that a student completed the assignment or to specify a score of correct/completed items.
Feedback is providing next steps to the student to better their work.
Assessment is determining the proficiency of the student, based upon some standard or criteria you have set.
Notice, these are different tasks. Grading involves scoring (correct/incorrect, low-level thinking). Feedback requires conversation (explain, explain why, mid-level thinking). Assessment requires MEASURING (compare/contrast, analysis, high-level thinking).
Is it wise to do all these three types of separate tasks together? Probably not.
The first task is to separate your piles into what needs to be graded, what needs feedback, and what needs deep-level assessment.
2. Make an Assignment List With Numbers and a Checklist
Make a list of all the assignments in your class. Assign each a number. Print that list of assignments with blank checkboxes next to each number and hand it to students. You’ll have less students asking you “which assignments did I turn in?” Also, you can quickly reference assignments by number. After all, how many essays do you assign?
You’ll be amazed how much more “on it” they will be – and you’ll have an easy answer every time an absent student says the dreaded, “What did we have to do yesterday?”
3. Have Students Note Assignment Numbers on Their Papers
When students submit work to you, have them put the assignment number in the top right of their papers. You’ll be more able to quickly sort and examine assignments. Life will change!
4. “Assess” Student Work at Their Desks
Not all work needs to be a summative assessment that is submitted to your desk (though you may always collect it). Go to the students’ desks during the “you do” portion of instruction and read what they are doing. Get in the habit of being out from your desk, walking the rows, taking questions, and making suggestions. I’d much rather have a student change their work 20 words in rather than 3 pages in. This means that you are looking at hundreds of pages less of work each week!
These are some of the ways that I simplify my grading. How do you simplify yours?
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